Worksop: Police called out more than 300 times to pubs and clubs last year

Liam Norcliffe

Police were called out to pubs and clubs in Worksop more than 300 times last year, the Guardian can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request by this newspaper to Notts Police found that officers were called on 321 occasions from 1st January 2014 to 1st January 2015 to premises or near to premises in the town.

The statistics show that cops were called 37 times to Cornerhouse, Bridge Place, 35 times to Yates’s, Victoria Square, 16 times to The Horseshoe, Kilton Hill, 16 times to Romans Rest, Raymoth Lane and 16 times to Rewind, Carlton Road.

Police were also needed 11 times at Lion Hotel, Bridge Street, nine times to Queen’s Head, Bridge Street and 10 times to The Ashley, Carlton Road.

A Notts Police spokesman said: “The information has been taken from the incident management systems which identify the incident location as a public house or club and where an officer has attended.”

“The officer may have attended an address other than public house or offence may have occurred within the vicinity of the public house rather than within the public house itself.”

The figures revealed that 68 call-outs were for violence against another person, 41 for anti-social behaviour, 27 on suspicion of theft, 25 for other suspicious circumstances, 16 for road related offences, 14 for domestic incidents, 14 for concern for safety, 13 for burglary, 10 for road traffic collisions, nine for drugs and eight for criminal damage.

Others included one for a sudden death, two for sexual offences, three for knives, three for guns, three for trespassing, four for harassment and two for animal wildlife.

Lee Mills, owner of Queen’s Head, Bridge Street, said: “I can only intelligently speak about the number of call-outs to the Queen’s Head as I have only been here for just over five months.”

“I found it necessary to call on the police on two occasions up to the end of December. My team of staff and I have worked tirelessly to ensure that incidents are quelled before they escalate to such a degree that they need police intervention.”

“Some of the call outs listed have nothing what so ever to do with the pub. It is not in the best interest of our businesses to allow customers to continually cause detrimental damage to the business.”

Manager of Archie’s Wine Bar, Bridge Street, Sarah Dickens, said: “I can confirm that we have not had any police call-outs to our premises since we took over. It is not that kind of place.”

The Guardian also contacted Yates’s but they were unavailable to comment before we went to press.

An earlier version of this article stated that the numbers referred to police call-outs to pubs and clubs in Worksop. We accept that the figures also included calls to areas around the premises. The article has been amended accordingly. We are happy to clarify the matter.